16 Tending to the Sick

Finding a sick monk lying uncared-for in his own excrement, the Buddha and Ānanda personally bathe and tend to him. The Buddha subsequently mandates that monastics must care for one another, declaring that serving the sick is equivalent to serving him. He outlines duty hierarchies for attendants and defines the five traits that make a patient easy or difficult to treat, and a caregiver fit or unfit.